Report: GOP immigration “principles” to include legalization for illegals

posted at 8:01 pm on January 16, 2014 by Allahpundit

For all the Republican blather about passing reform piecemeal rather than in a giant comprehensive bill, there’s really no way for them to separate legalization from border enforcement. If they pass something on security alone, the pressure on them from conservatives not to take up legalization unless and until there are measurable improvements on the border will be tremendous. And of course, those improvements may never come, which would leave the party stuck between amnesty shills who want legalization irrespective of what’s happening on the border and border hawks who want legalization off the table until the feds have proved they have illegal immigration under control. That’s an impossible political position and Boehner knows it.

The one-page document is being developed by House Speaker John Boehner’s office in conjunction with the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and others in the Republican House leadership. It contains few details but voices support for the major planks of the comprehensive bill that cleared the Senate last summer. That includes increased border security, stepped-up employment verification, a temporary worker program for low-skilled workers, more visas for high-technology workers and a path to citizenship for people brought to the U.S. illegally as children, according to two people who have seen a draft.

These measures would be considered as individual pieces of legislation, not as one big bill, though some pieces might be combined — such as enforcement and legalization.

The document also expresses support for legal status for undocumented immigrants and envisions some sort of legal process by which they admit guilt and pay fines and any back taxes owed. It will also insist that no legalization provisions take effect until border security and other enforcement measures are in place, people familiar with the draft said.

Read that last sentence again. We’ll need to see the language of the principles themselves to know for sure, but the way the Journal phrases that makes it sound like they’re not going to condition legalization upon actual improvements at the border. Whether the new security measures work or not is beside the point; once they’re in place, success or fail, it’s full speed ahead on legal status. That’s marginally better than the Gang of Eight bill, which offered illegals probationary legal status once a mere plan for new border security is in place, but the whole point of the “enforcement first” approach by border hawks is that we need firm proof this time after the debacle of the 1986 amnesty that the next round of security will actually work. We’re not getting that if the Journal’s version of the principles is accurate. What we’re getting, essentially, is a promise to give it the ol’ college try. You trust Republicans and, especially, Democrats to do their darnedest to stem the flow, don’t you?

One more bit of good news:

Legislation is being developed by House Republicans that wouldn’t exclude citizenship for those here illegally. But it rejects what many Republicans see as a “special path” not available to would-be immigrants who didn’t break the law. Rather, after people win legal status they could apply for green cards, the same as any other legal immigrant.

The Gang of Eight bill did create a special path; the House, mindful that grassroots conservatives hold it to a higher standard because of its tea-party membership, can’t get away with that. But they’re also not going to foreclose the possibility of citizenship. They’re punting, essentially, with a promise that citizenship won’t be easy and it won’t come soon but that it might come someday. (Sooner than you expect, probably, given the political pressure that’ll begin immediately upon passage to make citizenship quicker and easier.) The point here, as is always, always true of Republican immigration reform efforts, isn’t to produce good policy, it’s to produce something that will allow the GOP to woo Latino voters in 2016 while minimizing the backlash among conservatives at the same time. This is about salesmanship, not border enforcement. All the left really wants from this process is legalization without meaningful conditions; they can get everything else later, including citizenship, by demagoging Republicans for hating Latinos or whatever, but right now they want a foot in the door for illegals to give them a permanent presence. And that’s what Boehner’s going to give them, albeit dressed up with token panders to tea partiers about the lack of a path to citizenship or the application of new border security measures whose actual utility is basically irrelevant. I have to say, I honestly don’t know why we even resist at this point. They’re going to do this. They’re convinced that they’re dead on arrival in 2016 if they don’t have a shiny object to show Latinos, so they’re going to produce that object whether their base likes it or not. The base will turn out regardless, if only to Beat the Democrat on election day. There’s virtually no leverage here. I wish it were otherwise, believe me.

Blowback

Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.

Comments

I have to say, I honestly don’t know why we even resist at this point. They’re going to do this. They’re convinced that they’re dead on arrival in 2016 if they don’t have a shiny object to show Latinos, so they’re going to produce that object whether their base likes it or not. The base will turn out regardless, if only to Beat the Democrat on election day. There’s virtually no leverage here. I wish it were otherwise, believe me.

I’m part of this “base” you speak of. I won’t turn out. I won’t vote for Christie or Jeb Bush, and I will actively oppose GOPers who support what you speak of.

I am so tired of having to fight this same issue every single year. Year after year after year … The GOP needs to just die and disappear, already. I’ve had more than enough of these moron traitors. If they love illegals so much, let them take a hike to some other country. And if they had any integrity, at all, they’d do it and become illegals somewhere else.<p.

The GOP is run by all the wrong people/players.
They need to be taken over. A third party only secures socialism/communism will take over for sure while both parties self destruct letting the commie dems truly rule.
We need to accelerate the war on RINOS. If we do it well enough the Boehner types will simply disappear as their power will wane.

Republicans rightly supported the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in a greater percentage than did Democrats, but did they get credit for it among black people? No. Black people vote for Democrats by over 90% to this day.

You don’t even have to go back that far. Remember the Reagan amnesty? If amnesty were the key to wooing Hispanics, they would already be wooed. And Reagan was a republican. But yeah, the Obama amnesty bill will have them flocking to reward republicans, lol.

Why do Republican insiders think this will be different for Hispanics?
daviddunn

They don’t. That’s just another lie they hope you fall for. Which begs the question: What are they really doing it for? The answer to that should concern everyone.

:I’m part of this “base” you speak of. I won’t turn out. I won’t vote for Christie or Jeb Bush, and I will actively oppose GOPers who support what you speak of.

I assume I’m a minority, but I’m not alone.

King B on January 16, 2014 at 10:01 PM

Standing in the corner and sucking your Thumb because you don’t always get your way does little to help the situation and rarely wins elections. Of course we are all pissed that GOP
leadership is weak and ineffective. The game is vote them out!
we need to get rid of as many rinos before the primaries for both houses occur. Try and get as good a potus candidate as you can but if you don’t get a 100% candidate try harder next time.
Politics is never a 100% game. If you get 60-70% of what you want its not a bad deal.

Big business, the GOP donors, want AMNESTY, and Boehner and his pals are servicing those donors and, they think, grooming their own memberships in the political class.

thatsafactjack on January 16, 2014 at 10:02 PM

There are plenty of ” lowert skilled workers” available right here, right now. There is no need to import more crap .
Just get illegals and blacks and other professional multigenerational parasites OFF welfare and food-stamps and stop incentivizing and rewarding “breeding for benefits” by these people.

I have to say, I honestly don’t know why we even resist at this point. They’re going to do this. They’re convinced that they’re dead on arrival in 2016 if they don’t have a shiny object to show Latinos, so they’re going to produce that object whether their base likes it or not. The base will turn out regardless, if only to Beat the Democrat on election day. There’s virtually no leverage here. I wish it were otherwise, believe me.

-Allahpundit

Some ally you are. You previously admitted to supporting a special pathway to legalization for illegal aliens, so I’m not sure why you’re acting so disappointed about the notion that amnesty is inevitable.

Amnesty is not inevitable.

Several supposed conservative media “allies” have gone soft and have, in some cases, sold out.

Americans still oppose illegal alien amnesty when they are given the facts.

The base is mad as hell and all in DC can go to Hell. It no longer matters to the base who is president after 2016.

The thugs in DC are equal, from the left to the right, if they treat their base like sheep. Let the left have their sheepledoms.

Schadenfreude on January 16, 2014 at 10:19 PM

Indeed, my friend. I can’t find a dime’s worth of difference between the two parties these days. Not on domestic policy, not on foreign policy. Both have a deep disdain for the American citizen and the constitution, expressed openly and repeatedly.

we need to get rid of as many rinos before the primaries for both houses occur. Try and get as good a potus candidate as you can but if you don’t get a 100% candidate try harder next time.
Politics is never a 100% game. If you get 60-70% of what you want its not a bad deal.
rodguy911 on January 16, 2014 at 10:19 PM

You are right. We should never disengage and we should fight to primary the RINO’s.

I have to say, I honestly don’t know why we even resist at this point. They’re going to do this. They’re convinced that they’re dead on arrival in 2016 if they don’t have a shiny object to show Latinos, so they’re going to produce that object whether their base likes it or not. The base will turn out regardless, if only to Beat the Democrat on election day. There’s virtually no leverage here. I wish it were otherwise, believe me.

-Allahpundit

Some ally you are. You previously admitted to supporting a special pathway to legalization for illegal aliens, so I’m not sure why you’re acting so disappointed about the notion that amnesty is inevitable.

Amnesty is not inevitable.

Several supposed conservative media “allies” have gone soft and have, in some cases, sold out.

Americans still oppose illegal alien amnesty when they are given the facts.

Shame on the wimpy pro-amnesty bloggers of HotAir.

bluegill on January 16, 2014 at 10:23 PM

AP’s statement was likely mandated from the corporate overlords. Still doesn’t make it right, though.

HotAir’s decay into LukewarmGas is most disappointing, and inexcusable to say the least. For a while I only came here for the comments and not the actual posts, but when the overwhelming majority of commenters flame the posts of the most tolerable blogger on the site to smithereens… what fun is that?

A moment of silence should be observed for Twitchy and RedState, who will both be going down the same path of irrelevance that LukewarmGas has taken.

This may have been the case once, when the base had the luxury of thinking of politics like a team sport, and there were still two clearly defined political parties with separate agendas. This is no longer the case.

The voter base of the GOP understands the workings and ambitions of the political class far better today than ever before. Pain is the best teacher and there’s been plenty of it to go around of late. We clearly see the destruction being meted out by the political class, meted out without regard for the nation or its citizens, with only the grooming and currying of the ambitions of the donors and the political class itself as the goal.

There comes a time when every individual has to draw the line. For me the line is failing to repeal Obamacare and/or passing any form of amnesty for those who’ve willfully shattered federal immigration law.

If the GOP wants to get my vote they’ll have to stand up for the American citizens and the rule of law.

thatsafactjack on January 16, 2014 at 9:21 PM

Amnesty will further balkanize this nation to ruin at a faster rate. Fine, let it destroy itself, I’m buying more ammo.

Hey AP you’ve been saying that people should give up because you want amnesty. But I’m part of the base and I’m through with the GOP if there is ANY amnesty for ANY illegal. It’s not like we don’t know that amnesty leads to more illegal immigration or that we don’t know that there is a liar sitting in the WH. Or that we don’t know that illegal immigration leads to higher taxes and lower wages for the middle class. If the GOP passes ANY amnesty against the wishes of their base they will be finished. They’ll get no money or votes from me ever again but I will try to undermine them every chance I get.

If they pass amnesty, Hillary will have earned her hammer for Jan. 2015, in full, and the GOP will be history.

You can bank this.

Schadenfreude on January 16, 2014 at 10:16 PM

You guys turned out for Romney. When the election comes – the establishment will tell you all about the lesser of two evils … and how the US won’t survive a Hillary administration and they’ll call you a traitor or worse if you don’t vote for their establishment scrugg and …

You conservative slaves will buy it bigger than shit.

Just like with RomneyCare. LOL – still can’t believe the Ayatollahs FOOLED you guys into nominating a guy with a failed socialist healthcare system named after him!

If the GOP passes amnesty I will sit the election out. Period. And there are millions more like me.

Jack_Burton on January 17, 2014 at 12:45 AM

Ditto.

I’m a registered Independent but my voting behavior has been consistently for the GOP (since Reagan) and I consider myself part of the “GOP base.” I challenge the Hot Air bloggers to conduct a poll of its own readers and you’ll get an idea of how this issue will affect the voting behavior of “the base” in 2014 and 2016.

The article ignores the fact that there are more issues with immigration than border security and legalization. How about we leave those alone for now and address changing existing immigration law so that it is focused more on giving preference to immigrants with the education and skills that we need rather than on serving as a lifeboat for refugees from foundering third world economies.

Force the Democrats to defend immigration policy that excludes the science, technology, and engineering workers we are told are in short supply but gives us more uneducated, semi-skilled laborers that compete for low level jobs with unemployed Americans or move immediately to welfare.

Leave border security and legalization on the table for a future, hopefully conservative Republican, administration that would enforce existing laws against employing illegal workers or giving them welfare benefits and thus make illegal immigration less attractive. We might just find that our immigration system isn’t as “broken” as we are led to believe.

:I’m part of this “base” you speak of. I won’t turn out. I won’t vote for Christie or Jeb Bush, and I will actively oppose GOPers who support what you speak of.

I assume I’m a minority, but I’m not alone.

King B on January 16, 2014 at 10:01 PM

In a democracy, those who refuse to play always lose. Mao said that if 80% of the people are indifferent, I only need 10% to win. Well, 23% of the country identify as liberals but if over half the public doesn’t care enough to vote, guess who wins.